Millionaire ex-National Lottery commissioner, 63, avoids jail after groping a woman on the Tube and being caught with more than 500 indecent child images

• James Froomberg, 63, admitted three charges of making the indecent images
• He possessed more than 500 images with 106 Cat A, 111 Cat B and 387 Cat C
• Convicted of sexual assault over Tube groping on Central line in May last year
• Married to Claire and lives in five-bedroom detached house in North London   

James Froomberg, pictured last September avoided jail when he was sentenced at Harrow Crown Court this morning

A millionaire who groped a woman on the London Underground avoided jail today despite being caught with indecent images of children.

James Froomberg, 63, who lives in a five-bedroom detached house in Edgware, North London, admitted three charges of making the indecent images.

These included 106 pictures relating to the highest level of severity, category A.

The ex-National Lottery commissioner, who has previously been supported at court by his wife Claire, was in total found in possession of more than 500 images, with 111 category B images, and 387 in category C in December 2017.

His computer and its contents were later destroyed by police. He was given a 16-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months at Harrow Crown Court.

The businessman was also ordered to attend 35 days of the Horizon programme for sex offenders considered to be medium risk, as well as ten days of rehabilitation activity.

Froomberg, pictured previously with his wife Claire, admitted three charges of making the indecent images

He will be subject to a nightly curfew between the hours of 8pm and 7am for six months and will also be on the sex offenders register for the next decade.

Froomberg, who now one of the directors of a building company based in London, was further ordered to pay £425 in prosecution costs and a £140 victim surcharge.

After he was found with the images, Froomberg groped a woman on a Tube train in 2018, denying the charge by claiming to a jury he was asleep while standing up.

He pressed up against the female passenger after she got on the Central line at Holborn station on May 1 last year.

The Cambridge University graduate was told by a passenger: ‘I have seen what you’re doing and it’s disgusting’.

Froomberg lives in this impressive five-bedroom detached house in Edgware, North London

He left the train at Mile End but the woman’s boyfriend went after him and held him until police arrived.

A jury at Blackfriars Crown Court convicted him of sexual assault last September and he was given a community order of 12 months.

He was also ordered to pay £4,000 compensation to the victim, as well as completing 250 hours unpaid work, and given a three-month curfew of 8pm to 7am.

The wealthy businessman was appointed as a National Lottery commissioner in 2008 and spent five years on the commission’s audit and remuneration committees.

He pressed up against a passenger after she got on the Central line at Holborn station (file)

He was also a trustee of the Young Enterprise, a financial education charity which helps young people into business.

Froomberg’s CV includes membership of the government’s Casino Advisory Panel and the Commercial Director of British Waterways.

He was also the director of corporate development at Wembley plc and a KPMG partner, leading its UK leisure, tourism, property and PFI consultancy business.

He is also a former director of performance and innovation for City of London Police.

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